Oleg Filatov - A heart-to-heart conversations with the Tsesarevich Alexei

These results have major practical significance, since they allow us to establish, either independently or combined with the methods of genetic analysis, genetic kinship between the individuals investigated

Perfectly clear, that genetic research is only a part, albeit a substantial one, of identification studies. A comprehensive proposal to establish the identity between Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov and Vasily Ksenofontovich Filatov was drawn up in 1996 by Professor Vadim Petrovich Petrov, who holds a doctorate in medicine too. He began work on the project, and his son – Vadim Vadimirovich Petrov, who also holds an advanced degree in medicine and is continuing his studies at the Legal Scientific Research Center of the St. Petersburg University Law School – continued it after his death. The scientific research was conducted by Leonard Nikolayevich Gavrilov, a legal scholar, and Vadim Petrov. Some results of analyses are set forth here.

The scientific identification of an individual requires comparative materials from the same time for each of the people whose identity is being established. These materials can be photographs of the face (head), stomatological diagrams, X – rays of various parts of the body, molds of the jaws and teeth, handwriting samples, genetic – fingerprinting descriptions, and so on.

The researchers have analyzed the photographs of Vasily Filatov and Alexei Romanov as well as handwriting samples from each of them. In conducting the handwriting analysis, we used the following materials:

Six letters and five diary pages from Tsarevich Alexei Seven documents and six personal letters from Vasily Filatov (provided by his son Oleg) and two more photocopies of manuscript documents (provided by the Tyumen Provincial State Archive)

The handwriting analysis was conducted using traditional criminological methods. We quote the conclusion here:

EVALUATION OF RESULTS

Evaluating the results of this comparative investigation allows us to arrive at the following opinion: The small number of differences discovered in the general and specific features of the records studied can be explained by the large interval of time that elapsed between the six letters and diary pages that were written in 1916 – 1918 and the letters and manuscripts written later [between the years 1939 and 1985] by Vasily Filatov. The differences that were discovered in a few general features, and in a small number of specific features, in the handwriting samples are not sufficient grounds for concluding that the writing samples studied were executed by different people. In the process of an individual’s personal development, the level of ones writing changes, the general features of one’s handwriting change, and improve, and the specific features of one’s handwriting can change as well. No inexplicable differences were discovered in the investigation between the executor of the diary and the six letters of 1916 – 1918 and Vasily Filatov`s handwriting samples taken later. The differences in the general features and in a small number of specific features that were found during the course of the research can be fully attributed to the development of his writing (written speech) over the course of time.

The research has revealed similarities in the general and specific features of the handwriting. Each of the coinciding general and specific features taken alone is not unusual or rare. However, the discovery of such a large number of specific features coinciding in the handwriting samples studied as compared to the very small number of differences allows us to arrive at a very high degree of confidence in our conclusion that the writing samples studied (the six letters of 1916 – 1918, the five diary pages, and the handwriting samples from Vasily Filatov) were written by one and the same person.

CONCLUSION

Our research allows us to conclude that the writing samples we studied (the six letters of 1916 – 1918, the five diary pages, and the handwriting samples from Vasily Filatov) were written by one and the same person.

Specialists: L. N. Gavrilov (signature), V V Petrov (signature).

For the scientific portrait analysis, using photo registering, and sectoral coincidence, we studied seventeen black – and – white photographs of the Tsarevich Alexei (both alone and in groups), twelve black – and – white photographs of Vasily Filatov (both alone and in groups), and eleven photocopies and computer printouts of photographs. As is usual in identification research, the work began with a separate study of each subject. In the photographs of both Alexei Romanov and Vasily Filatov we studied the general structural features of the faces as a whole and their separate parts applicable to the elements of a “verbal portrait.” Then, in these same photographs, we studied specific features in the structure of the same parts of the faces. We summarized the results in tables and compared. In the comparative research we juxtaposed the same features and drew conclusions about their correspondence or lack thereof.

Utilizing television technology in pairs of depictions of Alexei Romanov and Vasily Filatov, we created various combined portraits that contained elements of the depictions of both of these individuals. After this, on each combined portrait, we studied the degree of correspondence between elements of Alexei Romanov s face and Vasily Filatov’s face. Here we quote the entire conclusion:

EVALUATION OF RESULTS

Evaluating the results of the comparative investigation allows us to arrive at the following opinion: An investigation of the portraits presented in the photographs revealed a large number of coinciding general and specific features in the structure of the heads and faces of the adolescent and the man. Also, despite the long interval between the time the photographs of the adolescent and the man were taken, we discovered no significant differences. The discovery of such a large number of coinciding general and specific characteristics in the absence of significant differences allows us to conclude, with a high degree of certainty, that the photographs and printouts portray the same person at different times in his life.

CONCLUSION

Our research permits us to conclude, with a high degree of certainty, that the photographs and printouts portray the same person at different times in his life.

Specialists: L. N. Gavrilov (signature), V V Petrov (signature).

Given the absence of negative results from the initial genetic testing and given the similarity of the anatomical structure of the cervical sections of the spine that is applicable to close relatives (as stated earlier, these two studies have not yet been completed), the positive results of the handwriting and portrait research allow us to draw the preliminary conclusion that Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov and Vasily Ksenofontovich Filatov were one and the same person. Nor is this conclusion contradicted by many other observations.

Forced to conceal his true origins, he had to recast his knowledge and upbringing and make himself as unremarkable as possible.

In 1988, as he was dying, my father said: “I have told you the truth, and you must know the pass to which the Bolsheviks have led Russia.” We, his children, are certain that he was not deceiving us. Unfortunately, he told us very little, and we find we still have questions for him. His spirit, though, seems to be with us. And we ask him our questions, and it feels like we are going through time and communing with him. While your parents are still alive, you accept it as your due, not giving any real thought to the fact that they are not immortal. This is why now we have to gather the crumbs of what he said, filling in his story with our own thoughts and the new facts recently uncovered. That is why my father’s story is interspersed with my own thoughts. The inquiries are not over. We have been helped to bear this heavy cross that was placed upon us by our friends, relatives, comrades – in – arms, and scholars who have taken an interest in this story. I hope that as a result we will all learn the truth.